The Power of Failure

What is Failure?

  • A lack of success.
  • The omission of expected or required action.
  • Achieving a result other than the one desired

Who Fails a Lot?

  • Athletes
  • Musicians
  • A child learning to walk

What Can Failure Be?

  • An opportunity to measure performance
  • A way to choose what not to do
  • First Attempts In Learning Using Real Experience™

Is
Failure
Defeat?

What Makes Failure So Scary?

  • We are what we DO
  • Social status = Identity
  • We measure ourselves externally
  • "Impostors syndrome"

How Can Failure Be Positive?

  • That which does not kill me... makes me stranger(?)
  • Fail fast, Fail FORWARD
  • The "Sherlock Holmes" method
  • Eliminate "analysis paralysis" - the endless "what if/what about..."

Accept Failure

Expect It

But DON'T Embrace It...

Fail, but NEVER Quit

  • Michael Jordan - failed to make high school varsity
  • Stephen King - almost quit "Carrie" after only 3 pages
  • Blockbuster - could have owned Netflix
  • Television - concept originally rejected because... radio
  • Remember 2007 - "what does Apple know about phones???"

Abraham Lincoln

  • 1832: Ran for state legislature – lost
  • 1835: Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died
  • 1843: Was not nominated Whig Congressional candidate
  • 1854, 1858: Did not win U.S. Senate race
  • 1860: Elected president of the United States

Marin Luther King, Jr.

  • 1961 desegregation campaign - Albany, Georgia
  • 1966 Chicago Freedom Movement
  • Failed to convert America to a fully integrated country based on justice and equality

Luz Long - the winning loser

Luz Long

  • Won the Silver medal in the 1936 Olympic long jump.
  • Rumored to have coached Jesse Owens how to avoid disqualification
  • Embraced Owens after his long jump gold medal victory
  • Remained friends with Owens until his death in WWII

Jesse Owens

  • Invented the myth about Long coaching him during long jump
  • Received the last letter Long wrote from the battle front
  • Honored Long's wish to tell his son Karl about his father hope for racial solidarity
  • Was best man at Karl Long's wedding

Losers Who Won - American Idol

  • Jennifer Hudson, 7th place, Season 3 (2004) -  Won Best Supporting Oscar for her first film, Dreamgirls (2006),  won a 2008 Grammy for best R&B album
  • Clay Aiken, Runner-up, Season 2 (2003) - outsold winner Ruben Studdard; in 2014, won the Democratic primary for North Carolina congressional seat before losing the general election.
  • Adam Lambert, Runner-up, Season 8 (2009) - currently touring with members of Queen
  • Katharine McPhee, Runner-up, Season 5 (2006) - Actress:  NBC's Smash and CBS' Scorpion

New Ideas Usually Fail...

  • Not because they don't work - the public fails to understand them
  • The creators fail to communicate their value and utility
  • Their real purpose fails to be initially understood

Surround Yourself

With CHALLENGERS, not CHEERLEADERS